Newton Abbot Work:Space works for Joanne
Award winning Devon businesswoman Joanne Manville firmly believes that Work Hubs can play an important role in building a successful business.
Joanne can run her virtual assistance business from anywhere in the world to provide back-office, personal assistant support to small business owners.
While the majority of her time is spent working from home, she says the Newton Abbot Work:Space is an ideal location for carrying out business development work on her own company, praising its excellent facilities and inspiring surroundings.
"I find if I'm working for my clients I'm fine to be at home, I've got two screens at home and I can work as I need to,” says Joanne.
“But if I'm working on my business, I need a change of scenery and that's where the Work Hub at Newton Abbot has been amazing. It’s a lovely place to be.
“It's very central in Newton Abbot, and a huge amount of effort has been put into making the Work Hub work for people. Not only have you got the coworking desks, you've got permanent office desks as well if you need quiet space. They've got a lovely unit where you can go in and take phone calls so you don't disturb other people.
"But what I was really impressed with at Newton Abbot, that I haven't seen at other work hubs, is that they've got computer keyboards and monitors all set up ready for you.
"It just means I can focus on doing more creative business development things and having that change of scenery really helps facilitate that."
Joanne has seen her business (Joanne Manville Virtual Assistance) take off since starting up on her own eight years ago. In that time, the company has grown and is now made up of 23 associates and two interns supporting a wide range of clients.
The growth of her company is also gaining recognition. Last year, Joanne received the Devon Women in Business Award for the Best Female Led Small Business up to 10 Employees, as well as being honoured at the VA Awards with the “Contribution to the VA Community” award. That’s after previously winning VA Awards as England’s VA of the Year in 2018, and UK Outstanding VA in 2019 and 2020.
Joanne said: “I started the business on my own and always intended it to just be me, because I had worked in management positions before and didn’t want to go down that route. But as more and more clients asked for different services that I didn’t provide I realised I needed to grow the team and it has grown quite organically.
"I spent a lot of time networking when I first started up the business and that's where coworking centres come into their own.
"I would say to anyone to definitely try a Work Hub. Being able to work flexibly, being able to go to a Work Hub when I want to, I can do what I need to for my business and my clients, and having the Work Hubs available with such fantastic facilities has really helped with that."
The Newton Abbot Work:Space is based in the Passmore Edwards building which is home to the library in the town. Both the library and Work Hub are run by local charity Libraries Unlimited, which runs 54 libraries in Devon and Torbay and also operates a Work:Space at Teignmouth Library.
The work spaces at Newton Abbot and Teignmouth joined the Devon Work Hub network after they opened in 2021.
Rachel Payne, Business Development and Fundraising Manager for Libraries Unlimited, said: "People traditionally think of books when they think of libraries but they actually offer a huge wealth of resource, and the work spaces are something else to add to that support for the community.
“Newton Abbot is one of our larger libraries with such a beautiful space available to use. SMEs and small businesses in the south west are growing but overhead rates for offices are quite often unaffordable for them, and this offers a unique, affordable option right in the town centre where they’re able to network and grow their business.
"You're not committing yourself to renting an office where you've got to think about overheads. You could be hot-desking for a day or using an office for a week. There’s no obligation.
“Our work spaces are very flexible and designed to fit in with different types of needs and different types of businesses we see. That flexibility between desk, office and private meeting spaces is really important for the variety of organisations and business who use our work spaces.
“We’ve also had businesses renting space while looking for permanent offices so it can be an ideal interim solution. Work spaces offer a raft of options.
“A diverse range of people are using our work spaces and one of the changes to working patterns we’ve seen since covid is that more businesses are using these spaces to support their staff in a hybrid-style of working.
"The ethos of our charity is around enriching lives and building communities, and that's what we try and do from our hubs.”
To find out more about the Newton Abbot Work:Space, as well as other Devon Work Hubs, please visit https://devonworkhubs.co.uk
